I understand some people's criticisms of having O'Loughlin at 6.

For the past 5 years we've had a scrum half who has consistently been a major influence in our side and this year, with his injury, we are lacking cover in the halves and the hooking position. This has been a huge point made throughout the season by a lot of fans.

By losing Leuluai, moving the on-form 6 in the league 10 yards further inside to play at 7 (if you watch our structured attacks) and then to cover him - we move the on-form 13 in the league to 6, we are always going to have problems.

Now we have signed Smith, who can slot in at 7 or 9 (ala Leuluai) we should be OK for the rest of the season but obviously, we were going to struggle in the cup with the constant pressure we put ourselves under due to some basic and woeful errors.

You can't lost the ball 5 times in your own half in the first 20 minutes of the game against anyone in Super League. Also mentioning our defence, which was a shamble. I think in the entire game, if Leeds started a set within 30 years of our line, we stopped them from scoring only twice.

Poor defence, too many errors in attack and a lack of creativity from the spine of the team. It just wasn't our day. If (and it's only an if) Smith hadn't been cup-tied or TL hadn't broken his leg, I'd be pretty sure we'd be on the way to Wembley come August.

I'm now looking forward to the rest of the season, with the likes of Richards, Leuluai, Fielden & Prescott all to fully return (hopefully).

The effects of playing Lockers at 6 are plain to see. The plays are just not as fast or fluid when he gets the ball and he has simply not got the legs to make a break as you would expect from a 6 on his own. What is more moving him for 13 to 6 removes one of his biggest contributions to the team which is his defence in that position.

All this was being said before the cup semi-final and has in fact been said for years whenever he does cover at 6. It has also been true for years that when he does, it isn't a success.

The same problems occurred in the semi-final - as they did a couple of weeks before v Bradford so I really do not think the positional changes can be dismissed and the result put down to mentality. Not when it is so obvious how this change affects the team.

My view is there was absolutely nothing wrong with the mental approach at all. It was a combination of factors that lost us the game, one of which was the positional changes due to injuries. The players wanted to win it as much as Leeds did but some were not fit (God knows why they were picked when unfit), Sam had a nightmare costing us two or three tries depending on your point of view and the team just made a load of mistakes gifting Leeds posession.

The team hasn't looked the same since the stupid exiles game. On fire before it and not looking pretty ordinary.

Pretty much agree with all of that.

One thing that baffled me was just how flat our forwards were standing to take the ball in.

This from a Shaun Wane coached team? I couldn't believe what I was watching.

Good for you, looking on the bright side

Enjoy you week off

Agree with Dave, but fortunately this shouldn't be a problem (barring injuries) for the rest of the season as Matty Smith will surely be 7 and Finch 6, allowing Lockers to be 13.

Then when Tommy returns, Smith can interchange with Micky Mac - get all those playing in the same 17 and the majority of the rest of the team fit and we'll come top of the SL and get to Old Trafford.